Joost Shopping For CDN To Juice P2P Network

Jackson West at
NewTeeVee comes close to nailing the infrastructure problem that
could plague Joost, which is supposed to stream broadcast-quality
on peer-to-peer networks:
American 'broadband' isn't very fast, especially for
uploading data, and won't be able to keep up with Joost's
bandwidth demands. Joost is well aware of this problem and is
searching for a commercial content delivery network (CDN) to fill
in the P2P gaps, a source familiar with the situation tells us.

Part of Joost's appeal is supposed to be free P2P distribution --
ideally, consumers are footing the bill for Joost's bandwith. But
P2P in the U.S. can't actually handle the amount of data that
Joost wants to move.

One problem is that the networks are better at pushing data down
to homes than back up the network: They were designed that way on
the assumption that residential subscribers will be consuming a
lot more content than they'll be creating and distributing.
Broadband providers also cap maximum throughput speeds, both to
discourage people from running servers on their computers and to
offer higher service tiers at a premium price. And lately they
have been shutting subscribers down who use "too much" of their
"unlimited" broadband accounts: see
this Boston Globe story where a Comcast subscriber got the
boot.

All of this spells bad news for Joost, whose peer-to-peer video
data rides mostly over the pipes owned by the TV service
providers it's looking to supplant: America's cable and broadband
giants. But a CDN, which can sell guaranteed bandwidth at
nose-diving prices, may help things out.